Chinese Vice Premier Liu Yandong speaks during the opening ceremony of the International Conference on Language in Suzhou, east China's Jiangsu Province, June 5, 2014. The conference was jointly hosted by Chinese government and UNESCO. (Xinhua/Li Xiang)

Chinese Vice Premier Liu Yandong on Thursday addressed a world language conference in Suzhou of east China's Jiangsu Province with a call for linguistic and cultural exchanges among nations and wider access to linguistic education.

The conference has gathered some 400 academics from over 100 countries, in addition to education ministers and UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Director-General Irina Bokova.

Liu said languages are the vehicle on which civilization is passed on from one generation to another, and are key to communication and understanding as well as cultural exchanges and mutual learning.

She called on countries to respect the cultural and linguistic characteristics of other nations and learn from each other, and to build quality linguistic education systems "so that everyone has access to linguistic education."